Chuuk
- Landsat 7
- Path 095 Row 055
- 27 December 2002
Located in the central regions of the Caroline Islands, 660 km west from Pohnpei and 1,475 km east-southeast from Yap, the large island and barrier reef complex of Chuuk is the largest component of Chuuk State. In all, the ten atolls, two sunken atolls and two solitary islands of Chuuk State consist of some 294 islands and islets with a total land area of 127 km² (see panoramic image).
By far the largest member of the state is that of Chuuk (also known as Chuuk Lagoon, and formerly known as Truk). Chuuk — imaged above in false-colour, with vegetation cover in grey-scale — is a large island-barrier reef system comprising a barrier reef of 64 km in width that encloses a lagoon of 2,129 km² in area. Within the lagoon are 14 islands of volcanic origins, covering 72 km², separated into the Faichuuk (the western islands), and Namoneas (the eastern islands). Upon the barrier reef are 69 low coral islets.
The major islands of Chuuk are the high islands of the lagoon interior: Tol (34.2 km²) and Moen (18.8 km²); the 439 m tall Mount Winipat on Tol is the highest elevation.
image: millenium coral reefs landsat archive/usf millenium global coral reef mapping project/nasa seawifs/nasa jsc
